Send me email updates about messages I've received on the site and the latest news from The CafeMom Team.
By signing up, you certify that you are female and accept the Terms of Service and have read the
Privacy Policy.

First day of school

Today is our oldest first day at school. We have been trying to homeschool him but he has been very difficult to get him to do his school work. We live in North Dakota so the compulserary age is 7 ( he's 6, almost 7) so we squeezed by with not reporting this year but would have to next year. Both dh and I didn't like public school, dh more so then I so we both feel kinda bad for sending him but we really didnt know how to get him to do his work. I work with his 4 year old sister so he was not the only one doing work while the others play. So this morning I walked him in the offic to get him checked in. As I was going out the door, I looked at him and you could just see the panic in his face, I tarted to erasure him by telling him that it'll be okay and that I'll be there to pick him up when schools done.... I'm sure he will have more then one melt down by the time school gets out ( he starts to cry when he has melt downs). I just hope he does okay. Thanks for listening, any tips or advice would be greatly welcomed.

My hart goes out to you. I hear how much you desire to home school him, and how much you care.

Just in case you decide to try homeschooling again: The desire to learn is as natural as breathing. So if one is not showing the desire to learn it is because the method is not suited to their particular learning style. Let me share two articles with you that should help.

That sounds hard for both of you. What kind of schedule/school work did you have going on?

We get up no later then 8 am for breakfast, chores ( laundry, breakfast dishes, easy things like that) and get ready for the day. The 2 youngest ones ( 2 1/2 and 13 months) play together, on their own or sit with us, I do let the 2 1/2 year old color when he sits with us. We start with " saint of the day" where I read a story about a saint and prayers and prayer memorization. My 2 oldest loves doing at because they get a special treat when they get one memorized. Then we go into math. The oldest has a work book and the 4 year old is working on 1-20. Then it's reading, writing and copy work. For reading I let my oldest pick any book he wants to read ( he particularly loves to read to his baby sister). He starts to get difficult when it comes to writing and copy work, he seems to just not like writing in general but both dh and I see it as an important thing for him to learn to write with a regular pen and paper. Afterwards we have lunch and try to do some kind of physical ed but with the extremely cold weather we've been having here, we are very limited. We live in an apartment building and the people here are nice enough that they don't mind 3 kids running up and down the hall way. We do have "rules" for that, like they are not allowed to hit the walls or doors or touch other peoples holiday decorations and have a reasonable tone of voice. The younger 3 takes a nap while I get some things done around the house, the oldest has the option or either play quietly, lay down, color/ draw or some kind of art project. After nap time we do a quick science and geophy lesson then it's free time for a few hours until dh gets home unless he has to work late. The boys ( including dh) usually rough house while I make supper, we eat, have some quiet time together ( play a board game or puzzle) then get them ready for bed.

as for school work, we are usually covered everything by 2-3 pm. I just can't seem to get my oldest to actually do his worksheets and I'm not sure why. It seems like he generally likes everything but writing unless there's worksheets involved. Exept for math, he loves math.

So the main thing he was having problems with is writing? Have you tried handwriting without tears? My 8yo HATED reading and writing. He hated it so much that we actually stopped for about 5 months. Handwriting without tears didn't work very well for him but my 7yo dd adored it. What did work for him was writing silly notes to his sister. We had a white board handy for words he didn't know how to spell and for every word he spelled correctly, he'd get 1 point worth 2 cents. For every word he tried to spell but got wrong, he'd get a 1/2 point. Adding up the points at the end counted for some math too :-) Now we've added story starters and story jumper. He loves them although I don't have him doing the typing. At his age I prefer he write it down on paper.

Really in the main thing I needed to do was find a way to make writing fun.

Quoting Sarah030607:

Quoting paganbaby:

That sounds hard for both of you. What kind of schedule/school work did you have going on?

We get up no later then 8 am for breakfast, chores ( laundry, breakfast dishes, easy things like that) and get ready for the day. The 2 youngest ones ( 2 1/2 and 13 months) play together, on their own or sit with us, I do let the 2 1/2 year old color when he sits with us. We start with " saint of the day" where I read a story about a saint and prayers and prayer memorization. My 2 oldest loves doing at because they get a special treat when they get one memorized. Then we go into math. The oldest has a work book and the 4 year old is working on 1-20. Then it's reading, writing and copy work. For reading I let my oldest pick any book he wants to read ( he particularly loves to read to his baby sister). He starts to get difficult when it comes to writing and copy work, he seems to just not like writing in general but both dh and I see it as an important thing for him to learn to write with a regular pen and paper. Afterwards we have lunch and try to do some kind of physical ed but with the extremely cold weather we've been having here, we are very limited. We live in an apartment building and the people here are nice enough that they don't mind 3 kids running up and down the hall way. We do have "rules" for that, like they are not allowed to hit the walls or doors or touch other peoples holiday decorations and have a reasonable tone of voice. The younger 3 takes a nap while I get some things done around the house, the oldest has the option or either play quietly, lay down, color/ draw or some kind of art project. After nap time we do a quick science and geophy lesson then it's free time for a few hours until dh gets home unless he has to work late. The boys ( including dh) usually rough house while I make supper, we eat, have some quiet time together ( play a board game or puzzle) then get them ready for bed.

as for school work, we are usually covered everything by 2-3 pm. I just can't seem to get my oldest to actually do his worksheets and I'm not sure why. It seems like he generally likes everything but writing unless there's worksheets involved. Exept for math, he loves math.

Ya, pretty much, he's not a big fan of reading either even though he's pretty good at it but it's a lot less of a struggle to get him to read then write. I have tryed just cutting out writing for a good 3-4 months. It might go better with silly notes... even though his sister can't read yet.

It seems like his first day went well... until he disappeared. Long story short, he went back to get something in his locker, a bus line was going by and the leader said come on kids, he thought he was talking to him so he went with the bus kids and got on a bus. His teacher ( who was a sub) was near tears because she lost a student.

Quoting paganbaby:

So the main thing he was having problems with is writing? Have you tried handwriting without tears? My 8yo HATED reading and writing. He hated it so much that we actually stopped for about 5 months. Handwriting without tears didn't work very well for him but my 7yo dd adored it. What did work for him was writing silly notes to his sister. We had a white board handy for words he didn't know how to spell and for every word he spelled correctly, he'd get 1 point worth 2 cents. For every word he tried to spell but got wrong, he'd get a 1/2 point. Adding up the points at the end counted for some math too :-) Now we've added story starters and story jumper. He loves them although I don't have him doing the typing. At his age I prefer he write it down on paper.

Really in the main thing I needed to do was find a way to make writing fun.

Quoting Sarah030607:

Quoting paganbaby:

That sounds hard for both of you. What kind of schedule/school work did you have going on?

We get up no later then 8 am for breakfast, chores ( laundry, breakfast dishes, easy things like that) and get ready for the day. The 2 youngest ones ( 2 1/2 and 13 months) play together, on their own or sit with us, I do let the 2 1/2 year old color when he sits with us. We start with " saint of the day" where I read a story about a saint and prayers and prayer memorization. My 2 oldest loves doing at because they get a special treat when they get one memorized. Then we go into math. The oldest has a work book and the 4 year old is working on 1-20. Then it's reading, writing and copy work. For reading I let my oldest pick any book he wants to read ( he particularly loves to read to his baby sister). He starts to get difficult when it comes to writing and copy work, he seems to just not like writing in general but both dh and I see it as an important thing for him to learn to write with a regular pen and paper. Afterwards we have lunch and try to do some kind of physical ed but with the extremely cold weather we've been having here, we are very limited. We live in an apartment building and the people here are nice enough that they don't mind 3 kids running up and down the hall way. We do have "rules" for that, like they are not allowed to hit the walls or doors or touch other peoples holiday decorations and have a reasonable tone of voice. The younger 3 takes a nap while I get some things done around the house, the oldest has the option or either play quietly, lay down, color/ draw or some kind of art project. After nap time we do a quick science and geophy lesson then it's free time for a few hours until dh gets home unless he has to work late. The boys ( including dh) usually rough house while I make supper, we eat, have some quiet time together ( play a board game or puzzle) then get them ready for bed.

as for school work, we are usually covered everything by 2-3 pm. I just can't seem to get my oldest to actually do his worksheets and I'm not sure why. It seems like he generally likes everything but writing unless there's worksheets involved. Exept for math, he loves math.

Oh my God. How scary! How long did it take for you to find him? I remember not getting off at my stop once when I was in school. We lived up in mountains and the bus ended up taking me dow the hill while my parents chased the bus trying to make it stop,lol.

Quoting Sarah030607:

Ya, pretty much, he's not a big fan of reading either even though he's pretty good at it but it's a lot less of a struggle to get him to read then write. I have tryed just cutting out writing for a good 3-4 months. It might go better with silly notes... even though his sister can't read yet.

It seems like his first day went well... until he disappeared. Long story short, he went back to get something in his locker, a bus line was going by and the leader said come on kids, he thought he was talking to him so he went with the bus kids and got on a bus. His teacher ( who was a sub) was near tears because she lost a student.

Quoting paganbaby:

So the main thing he was having problems with is writing? Have you tried handwriting without tears? My 8yo HATED reading and writing. He hated it so much that we actually stopped for about 5 months. Handwriting without tears didn't work very well for him but my 7yo dd adored it. What did work for him was writing silly notes to his sister. We had a white board handy for words he didn't know how to spell and for every word he spelled correctly, he'd get 1 point worth 2 cents. For every word he tried to spell but got wrong, he'd get a 1/2 point. Adding up the points at the end counted for some math too :-) Now we've added story starters and story jumper. He loves them although I don't have him doing the typing. At his age I prefer he write it down on paper.

Really in the main thing I needed to do was find a way to make writing fun.

Quoting Sarah030607:

Quoting paganbaby:

That sounds hard for both of you. What kind of schedule/school work did you have going on?

We get up no later then 8 am for breakfast, chores ( laundry, breakfast dishes, easy things like that) and get ready for the day. The 2 youngest ones ( 2 1/2 and 13 months) play together, on their own or sit with us, I do let the 2 1/2 year old color when he sits with us. We start with " saint of the day" where I read a story about a saint and prayers and prayer memorization. My 2 oldest loves doing at because they get a special treat when they get one memorized. Then we go into math. The oldest has a work book and the 4 year old is working on 1-20. Then it's reading, writing and copy work. For reading I let my oldest pick any book he wants to read ( he particularly loves to read to his baby sister). He starts to get difficult when it comes to writing and copy work, he seems to just not like writing in general but both dh and I see it as an important thing for him to learn to write with a regular pen and paper. Afterwards we have lunch and try to do some kind of physical ed but with the extremely cold weather we've been having here, we are very limited. We live in an apartment building and the people here are nice enough that they don't mind 3 kids running up and down the hall way. We do have "rules" for that, like they are not allowed to hit the walls or doors or touch other peoples holiday decorations and have a reasonable tone of voice. The younger 3 takes a nap while I get some things done around the house, the oldest has the option or either play quietly, lay down, color/ draw or some kind of art project. After nap time we do a quick science and geophy lesson then it's free time for a few hours until dh gets home unless he has to work late. The boys ( including dh) usually rough house while I make supper, we eat, have some quiet time together ( play a board game or puzzle) then get them ready for bed.

as for school work, we are usually covered everything by 2-3 pm. I just can't seem to get my oldest to actually do his worksheets and I'm not sure why. It seems like he generally likes everything but writing unless there's worksheets involved. Exept for math, he loves math.

I know what you are going through. Our mandatory age is also 7. My oldest who turned 6 in July REALLY wanted to go to school. So, we enrolled him. It lasted a month. He really enjoyed being in a new environment .....(we live in a very small town too) but.......there were 2 kids who hit and pushed a lot... I talked with him A lot about once he leaves PS he wouldn't be going back. . I knew he had enough when his 4 year old brother said....I get to go to school next year.... and my oldest said.....Good see how you like it. I use 2 sticker charts with him. One for writing and one for reading. If he does his school work. he gets a sticker. If he reads a book he gets a sticker. 10 stickers means he gets a prize / reward. It works for us.

It was about 30 mins by the time they found him. They were just about to call the police because it was dangerously cold out. I was starting to get worried when they were talking about calling the police. I figured he had gottin confused and followed the bus line or went with a friend on a bus.

Quoting paganbaby:

Oh my God. How scary! How long did it take for you to find him? I remember not getting off at my stop once when I was in school. We lived up in mountains and the bus ended up taking me dow the hill while my parents chased the bus trying to make it stop,lol.

Quoting Sarah030607:

Ya, pretty much, he's not a big fan of reading either even though he's pretty good at it but it's a lot less of a struggle to get him to read then write. I have tryed just cutting out writing for a good 3-4 months. It might go better with silly notes... even though his sister can't read yet.

It seems like his first day went well... until he disappeared. Long story short, he went back to get something in his locker, a bus line was going by and the leader said come on kids, he thought he was talking to him so he went with the bus kids and got on a bus. His teacher ( who was a sub) was near tears because she lost a student.

Quoting paganbaby:

So the main thing he was having problems with is writing? Have you tried handwriting without tears? My 8yo HATED reading and writing. He hated it so much that we actually stopped for about 5 months. Handwriting without tears didn't work very well for him but my 7yo dd adored it. What did work for him was writing silly notes to his sister. We had a white board handy for words he didn't know how to spell and for every word he spelled correctly, he'd get 1 point worth 2 cents. For every word he tried to spell but got wrong, he'd get a 1/2 point. Adding up the points at the end counted for some math too :-) Now we've added story starters and story jumper. He loves them although I don't have him doing the typing. At his age I prefer he write it down on paper.

Really in the main thing I needed to do was find a way to make writing fun.

Quoting Sarah030607:

Quoting paganbaby:

That sounds hard for both of you. What kind of schedule/school work did you have going on?

We get up no later then 8 am for breakfast, chores ( laundry, breakfast dishes, easy things like that) and get ready for the day. The 2 youngest ones ( 2 1/2 and 13 months) play together, on their own or sit with us, I do let the 2 1/2 year old color when he sits with us. We start with " saint of the day" where I read a story about a saint and prayers and prayer memorization. My 2 oldest loves doing at because they get a special treat when they get one memorized. Then we go into math. The oldest has a work book and the 4 year old is working on 1-20. Then it's reading, writing and copy work. For reading I let my oldest pick any book he wants to read ( he particularly loves to read to his baby sister). He starts to get difficult when it comes to writing and copy work, he seems to just not like writing in general but both dh and I see it as an important thing for him to learn to write with a regular pen and paper. Afterwards we have lunch and try to do some kind of physical ed but with the extremely cold weather we've been having here, we are very limited. We live in an apartment building and the people here are nice enough that they don't mind 3 kids running up and down the hall way. We do have "rules" for that, like they are not allowed to hit the walls or doors or touch other peoples holiday decorations and have a reasonable tone of voice. The younger 3 takes a nap while I get some things done around the house, the oldest has the option or either play quietly, lay down, color/ draw or some kind of art project. After nap time we do a quick science and geophy lesson then it's free time for a few hours until dh gets home unless he has to work late. The boys ( including dh) usually rough house while I make supper, we eat, have some quiet time together ( play a board game or puzzle) then get them ready for bed.

as for school work, we are usually covered everything by 2-3 pm. I just can't seem to get my oldest to actually do his worksheets and I'm not sure why. It seems like he generally likes everything but writing unless there's worksheets involved. Exept for math, he loves math.

Send me email updates about messages I've received on the site and the latest news from The CafeMom Team.
By signing up, you certify that you are female and accept the Terms of Service and have read the
Privacy Policy.